Rick Carlisle didn’t exactly slam the door on the idea of an NBA team in Mexico City. If anything, he left it wide open.
After the Indiana Pacers practiced at Arena CDMX on Friday, Carlisle said a Mexico City expansion franchise is “certainly possible” as the league keeps weighing its next move. He’s been there before, having coached NBA games at the building twice with the Dallas Mavericks, and he noted earlier in the day that Mexico City is the biggest city in North America, which he called pretty impressive.
“It’s certainly possible,” Carlisle said. “If the rumors are true.”
The expansion chatter has been building. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on Oct. 16 that NBA commissioner Adam Silver brought Mexico City back into the conversation at the September board of governors meeting, and owners left that room thinking Seattle was no longer a lock. According to that report, at least one Mexico City-based group had already met with PJT Partners, the investment bank handling the NBA’s expansion process, with a pitch for a team and a new arena district.
Silver addressed the subject on The Pat McAfee Show on Oct. 20, the day the 2026-27 season opened, and said expansion was still a few seasons away. He said Las Vegas and Seattle are the cities in active talks, but also made clear Mexico City remains on the radar.
“Maybe down the road there’s Mexico City, which is the largest city in North America,” Silver said.
He also pointed to the logistics.
“It’s a shorter flight from New York to Mexico than from New York to Los Angeles, so you can see why we’d be interested.”
A decision on expansion is expected before 2026 is out.
The Pacers had a couple of players who were happy to entertain the idea, even if they weren’t about to make the call themselves. Kelly Oubre Jr. said he would absolutely be open to playing in Mexico City, describing it as a beautiful country where the culture is everything.
“I’m not the one to say to y’all what y’all need to improve,” Oubre said. “I don’t know.
I gotta do some research and some studies, but at the end of the day, man, I think y’all deserve it. Y’all have the fan base, y’all have the arenas and all the places to play.
It’s not too far, so I think y’all got enough.”
He added: “I don’t know what they’re looking for to put a team in place, but I don’t know. Keep going. You’re doing a good job.”
Oubre, who signed a two-year deal with Indiana in July, then made it clear he wasn’t trying to speak for the league.
“I plead the Fifth, brother,” Oubre explained. “I’m a Pacer.
I love being a Pacer. And I don’t really make those decisions.
So at the end of the day, man, I’m just happy to be where I’m at right now.”
Pascal Siakam, who spent his first seven-plus NBA seasons with the Toronto Raptors, kept his answer even shorter.
“Oh, you’re asking the wrong guy,” Siakam said. “I don’t know. It’s above my pay grade.”
Arena CDMX has hosted every NBA game in Mexico City since opening in 2012, and it also serves as home for the Mexico City Capitanes of the NBA G League. Saturday’s game against the Denver Nuggets is sold out, with more than 22,000 fans expected.
The international footprint of the league came up, too. NBA.com lists seven international players across the two rosters for Saturday’s game, part of 125 around the league. Indiana’s international group includes Siakam of Cameroon, Ivica Zubac of Croatia, and Andrew Nembhard of Canada.
The conversation also drifted to a familiar basketball debate: where the best hoops are played. Oubre said he believes the top basketball is in America right now.
“I would believe so, yeah,” Oubre said. “It’s probably up for debate depending on where you’re from, but the best basketball is being played in America right now.”
Zubac, who grew up playing in Europe before the Los Angeles Lakers drafted him in 2016, agreed that the NBA sits at the top.
“Of course,” Zubac said. “It’s the best league in the world.
Most talent. All the best talent from the world, everyone wants to play in the NBA.
So it’s definitely the best basketball in the world.”
He added that putting an NBA player into a European league is a different challenge because the style changes.
“It depends. It’s a totally different game, so it depends on the game style of the player,” Zubac explained.
“Some of the players’ game style doesn’t [fit] well with European basketball, since it’s just a different game. But I would say definitely the best league is the NBA.”
The NBA’s next regular-season games outside North America are set for Paris on Jan. 14 and Manchester on Jan. 17, with the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans playing in both.
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